Baylor To Offer MBA Program In China

Professors from Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business will teach an MBA program to students in China under a new agreement between the university and the Shandong Electric Power Company (SEPCO), one of China's largest power companies.

The agreement calls for 14 business professors from Baylor to instruct nearly 50 management and research executives employed by SEPCO in the city of Jinan in Shandong Province, China. Recently, these SEPCO employees spent a month at Baylor, studying economics and accounting as part of their MBA coursework. Their trip was underwritten by SEPCO as part of its policy of encouraging employees to further their business education.

SEPCO employs about 200,000 workers and has more than 50 subsidiary companies. The company is ranked sixth in management effectiveness and profits among China's large state-owned enterprises.

During the next 10 months, the Hankamer professors will travel to China where they will teach at SEPCO's training center in Jinan. At the conclusion of their studies, the Chinese students will receive fully accredited Baylor MBA degrees.

The agreement was coordinated by the McBride Center for International Business, Hankamer's Office of Graduate Programs, and San Antonio-based Omega Institute, an international education and training services organization.

Dr. Stephen Gardner, director of the McBride Center, left March 7 to participate in the opening ceremonies for the new MBA program in Jinan. He also will teach the first course in the new program.

"This is going to be a very exciting opportunity that will expose a large number of our faculty to the dynamic Chinese economy, and will, I believe, open many other doors for us in that part of the world," Gardner said. "Our selected faculty members will go, one-by-one, to teach courses in Jinan until we finish the program in January 2001."

Dr. Clem Chow, president of Omega Institute, said, "We are excited about this opportunity to work with the Hankamer School of Business in offering the MBA program in Jinan. We look forward to developing more mutually beneficial programs of quality with Baylor University."